2010/05/26 by A. J. Longmore · 1 citation
Medicine · Physics and Astronomy · #Science, Research, and Medicine #History and Developments in Astronomy #Medical and Biological Sciences
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1468-4004.2010.51336_2.x
openalex publication_date 2010/05/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Timothy G Hawarden was born (on 24 December 1943) and raised in South Africa, where he showed through his early hobbies a love of innovation and scientific exploration and an interest in astronomy. He graduated in 1966 from the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg with a BSc in Physics and Applied Mathematics, going on to gain an MSc in Astronomy and a PhD from the University of Cape Town on the topic of old open clusters. He then became Computer Systems Manager and Deputy Head of the Photometry Department of the South African Astronomical Observatory in Cape Town. He was instrumental in the choice to site the present, now major, observatory at Sutherland. In 1975 he transferred briefly to the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, before taking up a position at the UK Schmidt Telescope in Australia, where he had a major influence on the huge success of the SRC/SERC Southern Sky Survey. It was at this stage of his career that his love of galaxies first became clearly established. He was the first to identify clearly a class of galaxies with extraordinarily high neutral hydrogen to total mass ratio, linking them to galaxies with very faint optical extensions discovered on Sky Survey plates. It was in Australia that his first wife, Kit, gave birth to their daughter Kate, and a son Sam followed in 1979 after they had returned to Scotland. Tim went back to the ROE in May 1978, where he worked as a member and then as Head of the UK Schmidt Unit. During this time he developed his interest in infrared astronomy and from 1981 he worked in the UK group that supported the operation in Hawaii of the 4 m UK Infrared Telescope UKIRT, becoming Head of the Edinburgh “Home End” section. Here, while working on ideas for ISO, already far advanced in design as a cryogenically cooled space telescope, he started to develop the concept of “passive cooling”. He then transferred from Edinburgh to the Joint Astronomy Centre (JAC) Hawaii in October 1987, where for 13 years he ably supported visiting astronomers from the UK and internationally in their use of UKIRT. He continued to promote the passive cooling concept, doing calculations at not much more than back-of-envelope level which turned out to be spot-on when eventually checked by NASA. The importance of this innovative work has just been recognized by the award to Tim from NASA of their Exceptional Technology Achievement Medal, for which the citation reads: “For the breakthrough concepts that made possible the James Webb Space Telescope and its successors.” These are the highest awards made by NASA. Tim was aware of his nomination but sadly did not live to hear of its confirmation. At a time when major evaluations of the future of 4 m telescopes in the era of the next generation 8 m telescopes was taking place, Tim became Project Scientist for the UKIRT Upgrades Programme. With a team led by Project Manager Donald Pettie they achieved image quality down to about 0.2 arcsec. In 2001 Tim relocated to Edinburgh as the UK ATC's Project Scientist for Extremely Large Telescopes, analysing and advising on requirements for the instrument designs and novel technologies needed to enable the next generation of ground-based 30–60 m telescopes achieve their scientific potential. Tim rapidly became the mainstay of the ROE Visitor Centre's Meet an Astronomer programme, through which he enthralled hundreds of visiting schoolchildren with tales of astronomy and astronomers — an activity he continued for several years well into retirement. His numerous non-technical scientific publications covered a wide range of topics from exotic-sounding objects such as the Cartwheel Galaxy and cometary globules to fundamental photometry and standards, but those on hydrogen-rich, or dusty, or barred spiral galaxies or any combinations thereof would probably have been closest to his heart. In 2006 he retired to spend more time with his beloved second wife Frances, to whom he was not only husband but also best friend and devoted carer. Tim Hawarden was not just a fine scientist, he was a personality, a presence, an inspiring colleague and wonderful friend. He died suddenly at home in Merchiston, Edinburgh on 10 November 2009. He will be greatly missed and very fondly remembered.